Top 10 Supercomputers In The World

The Top500 list of the world’s top supercomputer has just been released and surprisingly, a system from the United States sits top of the rankings.

The Top500 list is released twice a year with the systems ranked based on the Linpack bench mark. The last list was released back in November 2011 and at that time it was Japan’s K Computer that was regarded as the most powerful in the world.

Manufactured by IBM, this supercomputer contains a huge 1572864 cores – which is significantly higher than any of its rivals. Moreover, with this model also having an Rmax of 16324.75 and an Rpeak of 20132.66, it is no surprise to see it ranking so well. The Sequoia is currently installed at a United States government facility.

The second system on the list is the K Computer, which boasts 705024 cores, with an Rmax of 10510.00 and an Rpeak of 11280.38. This model, installed at the RIKEN Advanced Institute for Computational Science in Japan, has actually lost the top spot which it held for the previous two Top500 lists.

3. Mira

The system that ranked third on the list is actually very new and has never been featured on the Top500 scene. The Mira is installed at the Argonne National Laboratory at Illinois and uses 786432 cores, with an Rpeak of 10066.33.

4. SuperMuc

In 4th position is the SuperMuc, a system which is again manufactured by IBM. Installed at the Leibniz Rechenzentrum site in Germany, this system has 147456 cores, while it boasts an Rpeak of 3185.05. The SuperMuc is one of the few systems on the list that has been released in 2012.

The Tianhe-1A holds 5th position. Released in 2010, this system is based in China at the National Supercomputing Center in Tianjin. It boasts more cores than the 4th placed SuperMuc with 186368, but it certainly lags behind on the Rmax which reads as 2566.00 in comparison with the 2897.00 that IMB’s model holds.

In 6th spot is the Jaguar and this happens to be the oldest system on the list having been released in 2009. It is currently based in a government facility in the United States and it actually boasts many more cores than the Tianhe-1A. The Jaguar has 298592 cores to its name, although it lags behind in both the Rmax and Rpeak which read as 1941.00 and 2627.61 respectively.

7. Fermi

The system holding 7th place is the only one that is based in Italy, with the Fermi being located in Bologna at CINECA. Released in 2012, this 1.60GHz model has 163840 cores while holds an Rmax value of 1725.49 and an Rpeak statistic of 2097.15.

8. JuQUEEN

In 8th place its the JuQUEEN, which also happens to be based in Germany. It is situated at a research facility named Forschungszentrum Juelich and boasts 131072 cores, with respective Rmax and Rpeak values of 1380.39 and 1677.72.

9. Curie Thin Nodes

The CEA/TGCC-GENCI in France holds the system that ranks in 9th position. Named Curie thin nodes, this supercomputer has the fewest cores on the list with just 77184. It is definitely comparable to other systems with its Rmax value at 1359.00 though, while its Rpeak statistic is also impressive at 1667.17.

10. Nebulae

The final system to make the list is the Nebulae, which is based at the National Supercomputing Centre in Shenzhen in China. This holds significantly more cores than the Curie thin nodes at 120640, with an Rmax value of 1271.00 and an Rpeak of 2984.30.